The Berkian ship of Mulch and Bucket pulled into the harbor, followed by Berserker vessels. They pulled up to the docks as the two Berkians ventured to speak with their chief. Stoick was already near the boatyard and was curious as to why the visitors were there. "Mulch, Bucket, what is the meaning of all this?" he inquired. "When we were out fishing, we found something. A-" Mulch began. "A dragon!" Bucket interrupted, excitedly, "A big one too." The smaller viking frowned, "I was getting to that, Bucket. The Berserkers say that it's a Skrill."
Stoick gazed at them, blandly, "That doesn't explain why they're here, though." He looked over their shoulders and saw Dagur descending from the boat. "Dagur wants to see if we can help them train it. That's all we know." Mulch informed. The younger chief approached them. "Hello, Stoick. I'm guessing they told you why we're here." he said. The elder viking eyed him, cautiously, "In a way." Dagur used his head to gesture to the Skrill that was encased in ice and waved to Gobber who was coming over.
"That Skrill has been the symbol of our people for as long as the records have existed. I'd really appreciate it if Hiccup would help me train it." Dagur explained. Gobber chuckled, "Dagur, that dragon's been in ice for Thor knows how long. It won't be any good to ya." The Berserker was resolute, "They can regulate their body temperatures whenever necessary. He's not dead, just dormant. All we have to do is thaw him out and then we can start training." he beamed, then added "If you don't mind, that is."
Gobber looked at his best friend in askance and Stoick gave a sigh, "Find Hiccup, would ya, Gobber?" The metal working nodded and went to look for the boy. "Hiccup!" he called. Hearing a muffled reply, he went over and saw smoke covering the dragon training arena. "What happened in here?" he asked. Hiccup coughed, "The twins, mainly. What brings you here? You hardly ever come." Gobber was still looking at all the smoke that was in the stadium, "Dragons sure can be a deadly weapon to have, huh?" he stated, more to himself than as a question.
"Yes, but in the right hands, they're great protection instead of arsenal." Hiccup told him. That snapped the welder out of his trance, "Uh, Dagur and his Berserkers are here." The boy's eyes widened, "Why'd they come? Are they all right?" "They're fine, but Mulch and Bucket found a Skrill and the Berserkers want you to help them train it." the man answered. Hiccup ran a hand through his hair, pondering, "I don't know if I should. Um, what do they need it for?" Gobber shrugged, "Didn't say. Only said that they wanted it trained. They're right in the village, you can just go and ask. Your father and you won't be using me as a messenger." Gobber grumbled, walking back to the main part of the island.
Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Astrid went to see what the reason for the sudden dragon need was. "Hey, Dagur." Hiccup addressed. "Brother! Hey, Fishy, and Astrid." the Berserker gave a nod of acknowledgement to the others. "Heard that a Skrill was found." Hiccup stated. His friend nodded so enthusiastically that he feared his head might pop off his shoulders. "Isn't it great fate? Odin must want us to have it on our island." Fishlegs spoke up, "But, what do you need it for? You won't be able to ride it." Dagur looked at him, "I know. I just want him to be there. If anyone attacks, he can help us defend our island. Plus, I can still hang out with him. Just not fly due to the whole...lightning channeling thing." He gestured in the air with hands, implying the electricity.
Hiccup looked at the icy Skrill, "Could you guys move it to the arena?" The Berkians agreed to and began to haul it away. "Sooo, does this mean that we'll train it?" A smile formed on Dagur's face. "It means that I don't want it blocking the whole dock area." Hiccup admitted, "Let's talk more about this dragon first." "Fine by me." Dagur complied. "What do you know about Skrills?" Fishlegs asked, wondering if the older boy had the same amount of knowledge as their outdated legends. "I know that it draws its power from the lightning in storms. It can't create the blasts, but does store the electricty in his body for multiple shots and later distributions. It'll fly into the clouds, if spooked, so that it can find some lightning too. Also, that you have to keep it in water, if you haven't done the training. Otherwise, it'll just probably blast you, but they can't fire in the water."
The mouths of the three Berkian youths were gaping. "Wow," Astrid cooed, shocked, "He's putting Fishlegs to shame." Dagur grinned, "We have a lot of books and notes that've been written on Skrills. They've always been so fascinating to me, so I've read every one that I could find about a thousand times. They're, pretty much, memorized word for word now. The information is definitely welded to my brain." Hiccup looked at the two riders and back at Dagur, "You'd just use him as protection?" "Yep. Just that. I promise that I won't go off and try to lay siege to some place with him. He should be treasured, not treated as a weapon."
Hiccup gave in, "All right." he stated, "I'll help you, then." He was met with a bone crushing hug, "Thank you, Hiccup!" "A-air." the small boy squeaked out. "Whoops." Dagur let him go and the heir caught his breath. An explosion was heard and the vikings' heads snapped in its direction. "What, in the name of Thor, caused that?" Dagur asked. Hiccup turned ashen, "The arena doesn't just have the Skrill in it." In an instant, Dagur was running to the stadium.
The chief was there way before the others were and saw the Skrill out of the ice and in its full glory. It was frightened and about to fly away. "No, don't leave, Skrilly. Daddy's here. It's okay-" he started, calmly. Another boom cut him off. Barf and Belch had caused a blast that made Hookfang spark up, both spooking the Skrill and making it flee. Dagur's eyes shot knives at the twins and Snotlout. "You scared him away!" he bellowed. The three, visibly, cowered at his rage. "You thought it was a good idea to leave the Skrill with them?" the Berserker asked Hiccup, acusingly, just as the boy arrived to the scene.
Sheepishly, Hiccup spoke, "It sounds worse out loud." "No, it was just a bad idea." Astrid commented, earning a glare from the trainer. "Well, he'll be looking for some food now. They eat cod, mainly, so we have to the East water. If we hurry, we should be able to catch him." Dagur said, cooling down to be more productive. The riders mounted up and the Berserker started to go to his ship. "Dagur, you said we had to hurry. The best way to do that is flying, not sailing." Hiccup told him. Snotlout smiled, "You can ride with me! Hooky's the best." In pure, ornery, spite, Hookfang sparked up and lit the boy's bottom on fire.
Snotlout yelped and ran to the nearest water bucket, leaving Dagur to raise his eyebrow, "Well, I'm not riding on that dragon." Hiccup chuckled, "I didn't expect you to. You can ride with me on Toothless." The dragon smiled up at the Berserker, who returned the expression and, carefully, climbed onto his back. The dragons took to the sky in a flash, causing Dagur to try his best not to crush Hiccup as he held on. They sped through the air and Dagur dared to look at their surroundings. His eyes lowered and went to the ground. The ground that was so far away from them.
He could not tear his vision from the ground and saw trees and water zoom by with a speed he had never seen before. The wind blew and made for mild turbulence. This was natural to the riders, but gave Dagur nausea. The boy paled and closed his eyes. "You okay back there?" Hiccup finally asked, noticing his long silence. There was a quiet, "mhmm" as Dagur set his mind on the dragon to distract him, "D-do you see the Skrill?" he asked Hiccup, struggling to keep the nauseous chills from happening. "Not yet." the boy answered. "Oh Thor, we have to do more of this?" Dagur thought, miserably.
"Are your eyes closed?" Hiccup inquired, wondering why his friend had asked that. After a slight pause, Dagur replied, "They were opened, but everything's going by so quickly." Fishlegs contemplated, "I've felt the same before. I still do sometimes." he admitted, "You can't look down, not for the first few times. Just look at the sky and you'll see how nice it is up here." Hesitantly, Dagur took the advice and , slowly, opened his eyes. He looked at the sun and the clouds over the seas. The water sparkled from the sun's light. It was all beautiful up there.
He stared at the scenery in awe, "Thank you, Fishlegs." the chief said, gratefully. The younger viking smiled in response. Dagur brought his attention to something else and squinted, "He's over there." Dagur alerted, pointing, "Down on the rocks." "What do we do?" Astrid asked, looking at the Skrill finishing up his meal. The Berserker pondered, "Set me down right there." "Uh, Dagur, I know you go by 'Deranged', but that seems a bit risky, don't you think?" Snotlout inquired. Dagur shrugged, "Risky? Sure, but he'll be spooked if we all start chasing him. Worst comes to worst, I'll go over to the rocks there and you can get me. Sound fair?"
"Sounds interesting!" the twins beamed, wringing their hands with anticipation. Toothless began to hover over the area Dagur had pointed out and he jumped off the dragon. The Skrill sensed him and turned, snarling. "Dagur." Hiccup started. The Berserker shooed him away and focused his attention on the dragon. "Hey, there Skrilly. You're a bit confused about why we're here, aren't you?" The Skrill was intrigued by the boy and, momentarily, halted his growling. "Well, I'd love to give you a nice home on my island. You'd love it. It's big, has plenty of cod-" This caused the reptile to perk up, "Oh you like that, huh?" the boy laughed.
"You won't have to worry about being hungry or alone ever again. If you ever want to blast something, I'll prepare a whole area for you. A really cool place, in particular. Whatever you'd like, I'd get for you. We can be best friends. How does that sound?" Dagur inquired. The Skrill tilted his head and his eyes had a peaceful look in them. It started walking over to Dagur with his head lowered. The boy was unsure on what to do, but it felt natural to pet the dragon and he, happily, complied with the instinct.
Dagur felt joy bubble inside of him as the palm of his hand went against the Skrill's forehead. He gave an enormous smile to the dragon riders and they gave him a thumbs up. Despite his exultation, he frowned. "Skrilly, you have to move now." he said, panic rising in his throat. The dragon did not understand why and stayed still. "Move!" The boy tried to push the large dragon out of the way, but was too late and chains came and incapacitated the Skrill.
Dagur ran to get the chains off the dragon and a fleet of Outcasts arrived. Their weapons were drawn and they ran up to him. He drew his sword and slit the throat of one, and used his ax to lop off the head of another. The riders sent blasts at the Outcasts to help, but there were so many that they were unable to defend themselves and the dragon. The Skrill was hauled onto Alvin's ship and it sailed away, leaving the Outcasts that had gone on the land, completely. Soon, the attackers were defeated and Dagur ran to the edge of the rocks, "Skrilly!" he called into the fog. He could see nothing and only heard a pitiful squawk in response. A more ferocious roar followed, but it had derived from the Berserker.